As technology advances, the options for communications have become more varied. For example, in the last 30 years in the telecommunications industry, personal communications have evolved from a home having a single rotary dial telephone, to a home having multiple telephone, cable and/or fiber optic lines that accommodate both voice and data. Additionally cellular phones and wireless networking technologies have added a mobile element to communications. In terms of wireless networking communications, two of the currently dominant, standardized approaches are specified in the Wireless LAN (WLAN, “Wi-Fi”, 802.11a/b/g/n) standard and the Bluetooth standard.
WLAN devices are frequently used, for example, to provide wireless Internet connectivity and operate in two frequency bands, i.e., a low band disposed in the 2.4 GHz Industrial, Scientific and Medical Band (ISM band) and a high band disposed in the 5 GHz range. Bluetooth devices also operate in the 2.4 GHz band and are frequently used, for example, for short range wireless communications, e.g., between a mobile phone and an associated earbud device.
Increasingly, WLAN devices and Bluetooth devices operate in proximity to one another and, recently, there has been an interest in providing integrated WLAN/Bluetooth transceivers. This raises various co-existence challenges associated with the different standardized radio interfaces, as well as other challenges associated with, for example, reducing pin and component counts as described in more detail below.